Achaean League

The Achaean League was a confederation of 10-12 city-states in the northern
Peloponnesus. Like the Aetolian League, it had a mixed constitution run by
delegates from the member communities, and held elections every year. However,
it had no headquarters and for each session met in a different place. Otherwise it was
more centralized; the president was the League's commander in chief, though he
could not serve for two consecutive terms. In fact, around 190 the League
members gave up their separate laws and coinages, making them a single state
without a capital.

Its importance grew in the 4th century, when we find it fighting in the
Theban wars (368-362 B.C.), against Philip (338) and Antipater (330). About 288
Antigonos Gonatas
dissolved the league, which had furnished a useful base for pretenders
against Cassander's regency; but by 280 four towns combined again, and
before long the ten surviving cities' of Achaea had renewed their
federation. Antigonos' preoccupation during the Celtic invasions,
Sparta's prostration after the Chremonidean campaigns, the wealth
amassed by Achaean adventurers abroad and the subsidies of Egypt, the standing
foe of Macedonia, all enhanced the league's importance .The Achaean League's most important leader was Aratus of Sicyon, who was
president nearly every other year from 245 until his death in 213. Under Aratus
the League saw its greatest successes, taking Corinth from Macedonia in 243,
adding Megalopolis (in Arcadia) eight years later, and acquiring Argos in 229.
Like Pericles, he was a persuasive speaker whose objective at first was to free
the Peloponnesus from Macedonian domination, and he is credited with bringing
into the confederation many of the principal cities of Greece. But he was none
the less instrumental for the subsequent Macedonian domination of the
Peloponnesus, for while fighting Cleomenes III of Sparta and the Aetolian League
he changed his policy towards Macedonia and called in Antigonus III when Sparta
looked liked winning. He successfully oversaw
the reduction of Sparta, so the successors of Aratus alternated between
resisting Macedonia and resisting Rome. Aratus probably also organized the new federal constitution, the
character of which, owing to the scanty and somewhat perplexing nature
of our evidence, we can only approximately determine. The league
embraced an indefinite number of city-states which maintained their
internal independence practically undiminished, and through their
several magistrates, assemblies and law-courts exercised all traditional
powers of self-government. Only in matters of foreign politics and war
was their competence restricted.
The most important of the latter
presidents, Philopoemon, incorporated Sparta into the League in 192, followed by
Elis and Messenia. This gave the League control over nearly all of the
Peloponnesus. When the Romans finished their conquest of Greece in 146, they
disbanded the Achaean League, but gave its name to the new province they created
there..

The central government, like that of the constituent cities, was of a
democratic cast. The chief legislative powers resided in a popular
assembly in which every member of the league over thirty years of age
could speak and vote. This body met for three days in spring and autumn
at Aegium to discuss the league's policy and elect the federal
magistrates. Whatever the number of its attendant burgesses, each city
counted but one on a division. Extraordinary assemblies could be
convoked at any time or place on special emergencies. A council of 120
unpaid delegates, selected from the local councils, served partly as a
committee for preparing the assembly's programme, partly as an
administrative board which received embassies, arbitrated between
contending cities and exercised penal jurisdiction over offenders
against the constitution. But perhaps some of these duties concerned the
dicastae and gerousia, whose functions are nowhere described. The chief
magistracy was the strategic, (tenable every second year), which
combined with an unrestricted command in the field a large measure of
civil authority. Besides being authorized to veto motions, the strategos
(general) had practically the sole power of introducing measures before
the assembly. The ten elective demimgi, who presided over this body,
formed a kind of cabinet, and perhaps acted as departmental chiefs. We
also hear of an under-strategos, a secretary, a cavalry commander and an
admiral. All these higher officers were unpaid. Philopoemen (q.v.)
transferred the seat of assembly from town to town by rotation, and
placed dependent communities on an equal footing with their former
suzerains.

The league prescribed uniform laws, standards and coinage; it
summoned contingents, imposed taxes and fined or coerced refractory
members.

The first federal wars were directed against Macedonia; in 266-263
the league fought in the Chremonidean league, in 243-241 against
Antigonos Gonatas and Aetolia, between 239 and 229 with Aetolia against
Demetrius. A greater danger arose (227-223) from the attacks of
Cleomenes III. Owing to Aratus's irresolute generalship, the
indolence of the rich citizens and the inadequate provision for levying
troops and paying mercenaries, the league lost several battles and much
of its territory; but rather than compromise with the Cleomenes
the assembly negotiated with Antigonos Doson, who recovered the lost
districts but retained Corinth for himself (223-221). Similarly the
Achaeans could not check the incursions of Aetolian adventurers in
220-218, and when Philip V. came to the rescue he made them tributary
and annexed much of the Peloponnese. Under Philopoemen the league with a
reorganized army defeated the Aetolians (210) and Spartans (207, 201).
After their benevolent neutrality during the Macedonian war the Roman
general, T. Quinctius Flamininus, restored all their lost possessions
and sanctioned the incorporation of Sparta and Messenia (191), thus
bringing the entire Peloponnese under Achaean control. The league even
sent troops to Pergamum against Antiochus (190). The annexation of
Aetolia and Zacynthus was forbidden by Rome. Moreover, Sparta and
Messenia always remained unwilling members. After Philopoemen's death the
aristocrats initiated a strongly phito-Roman policy, declared war
against King Perseus and denounced all sympathizers with Macedonia. This
agitation induced the Romans to deport 1,000 prominent Achaeans, and,
failing proof of treason against Rome, to detain them seventeen years.
These hostages, when restored in 150, swelled the ranks of the
proletariat opposition, whose leaders, to cover their maladministration
at home, precipitated a war by attacking Sparta in defiance of Rome. The
federal troops were routed in central Greece by Q. Caecilius Metellus
Macedonicus, and again near Corinth by L. Mummius Achaicus (146). The
Romans now dissolved the league (in effect, if not in name), and took
measures to isolate the communities (see POLYBIUS). Augustus instituted
an Achaean synod comprising the dependent cities of Peloponnese and
central Greece; this body sat at Argos and acted as guardian of Hellenic
sentiment.